Books
The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton Christensen
Changed how I think about sustaining vs disruptive bets — and why incumbents are rational right up until they're not.
Working in Public
Nadia Eghbal
The clearest thinking I've found on community, contribution, and the economics of open systems.
Thinking in Bets
Annie Duke
Useful antidote to outcome bias — separating the quality of a decision from the quality of its result.
Essays
Do Things That Don't Scale
Paul Graham
The most useful permission slip for early-stage product thinking I've come across.
Taste for Makers
Paul Graham
On why taste is a skill, not an instinct, and how it compounds slowly over time.
The Anatomy of a Strategy Deck
Shreyas Doshi
Changed how I structure any document meant to move a room.
Films & Other
Moneyball
2011 · Bennett Miller
About finding signal where incumbents won't look. Comes back to me every time I'm arguing for a counterintuitive call.
How I Built This
Podcast · Guy Raz
Less about tactics, more about why founders make the choices they do under pressure.